The Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), which comprises some 60 countries and organisations, met at the UN in New York on Tuesday to discuss latest developments in the international community's efforts against piracy in the Indian Ocean.

Home Affairs Minister Joel Morgan, who is also chairman of the High-Level Committee on Piracy, was represented at the meeting by Seychelles’ permanent representative to the UN, Ambassador Ronny Jumeau, and the chief officer of the Financial Intelligence Unit, Declan Barber.

Speaking at the opening, assistant UN secretary-general Fernandez Taranco from the Department of Political Affairs was the first to refer to Seychelles' negotiations with Somali authorities to transfer convicted pirates to serve their prison sentences in Somalia as a significant new development.

This agreement was signed recently by Mr Morgan and representatives of the Transitional Federal Government of Somalia. The Somaliland and Puntland regional authorities have also signed a memorandum of intent to put in place a similar agreement.

Mr Jumeau later stressed the need to get the prisons in Somalia up and running to enable the post-trial transfers, as they are called, to go ahead as soon as possible. Once this happened, he added, it would serve as an incentive to more states in the region to prosecute pirates.

In this context, Mr Morgan has announced that the first such prison, set up with the help of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), will open very soon in Hargesia, Somaliland, and that representatives from Seychelles will attend its inauguration.

Mr Jumeau described Seychelles as being "in the eye of the piracy storm raging in and around our waters" at immense cost to its small island economy, heavily dependent on sea-borne imports.

It is by far the smallest country combating piracy in the Indian Ocean, but that does not prevent it from "actively and even aggressively taking on the pirates", he added.

Mr Jumeau thanked all Seychelles' bilateral and multilateral partners, including the UNODC, who are helping the islands punch well above their weight against piracy.

"Judge us not by our size, but by the strength of our punch," he said.

He expressed Seychelles' willingness to work with other countries now prosecuting pirates to gather the intelligence required, when debriefing rescued hostages and captured pirates, to go after the pirate leaders, organisers and financiers. He thanked Interpol and the European Union for the help they are already providing towards this end.

Mr Jumeau also expressed Seychelles' support for the United States-led initiative to trace the multi-million-dollar ransoms paid to pirates so as to identify and apprehend the people responsible for instigating, organising and funding the pirate attacks.

Seychelles will this year join the board of the CGPCS's trust fund, which helps countries, especially within the region, to meet the costs of prosecuting suspected and imprisoning convicted pirates as well as other contact group activities.